Tetris® Effect: Connected

If you ever thought to yourself "Man, I'd like to play Tetris while tripping on Ketamine and listening to Orbital," then this is the game for you.

Here's my opinion on Tetris Effect: Connected:
It should have an Overwhelmingly Positive Steam score and it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ travesty it doesn't.
This game is more spiritual experience than it is game. It's my safe space, my self-care after a hard day. It's one of the purest audio-visual experiences in the gaming space. And you're depriving youself of one of the best and most unique dopamine inducers by deciding not to play it.

this game genuinely pulls me out of panic attacks and helps me reset better than anything else. the visuals and audio are unmatched. get this game i swear you won't be disappointed

Tetris Effect is everything and anything Tetris can be, be it a fun puzzle game, a relaxing meditation exercise, a lesson in proper resource allocation, a commentary on the fallacies of induced demand, a audio-visual feast for the senses, an excuse to type up a specifically pretentious-sounding Steam review at 1:24 in the morning when I can't sleep due to the restlessness caused by my ongoing fight with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, an accessible means for experiencing chromesthesia, a-

Yea.
Easily the best Tetris game ever made, no questions asked. Visuals, music, super tight and responsive gameplay, gamemode variety, multiplayer modes, EVERYTHING is just right.
Took me almost 100 hours to 100% and all of it was fun (save for maybe the final bit of grinding for player level 100 but hey, no game is perfect).
Okay so for starters, this is a Mizuguchi game. Director/producer of Lumines/Meteos fame, along with having worked on other similarly musical games like Space Channel and Child of Eden.
It shows.
Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, in this game is tied to the music, in Lumines fashion. All your gameplay movements snappily add dynamic beats that perfectly time to the music (by subtly delaying sound cues until the next quarter-beat comes), which combined with the silky smooth controls and framerate make the gameplay extremely satisfying. Every second of gameplay is absolute visual and audio bliss, bombarding you with gorgeous backgrounds and catchy music that perfectly times with all your actions.
And the new Zone mechanic is super satisfying to use, too. Essentially a recharging meter that fills up with line clears, that allows you to completely freeze time temporarily so you can chain as many line clears together all at once before it unfreezes, giving MASSIVE point payoffs (or massive attacks, if you're playing versus against another player). Cool and satisfying in singleplayer, a whole other mechanical layer in multiplayer.
The main "campaign"/Journey mode is a wonderful little package, with three different difficulties with wildly different experiences, along with the ranking system already giving a solid bit of replayability just for that.
But then you have all the Effect modes (the arcade-y sidemodes that are what you'd actually expect from a Tetris game), with a billion different modes to play in four different categories, along with unique extra backgrounds/songs/"skins" you can play them in. All of them also tying music and visuals to your gameplay, of course.
Everything you'd expect is there; marathon, endless modes, sprint/score attack, along with a bunch of more out-there stuff like the "mystery"-category modes which add a bunch of weird rules and obstacles for you to deal with, and modes that help you practice execution like Full Clear which lets you try advanced flipping through gaps (on top of being fun themselves, obviously).
And because I need to mention it specifically, a later update added Classic Score Attack which straight up follows NES rules, as faithfully as one could possibly imagine, with gorgeous visuals and remixed music, all the way down to letting you pick between 60hz/50hz gameplay speed to match whichever you're used to playing, if you've played the original.
Then there's the multiplayer modes!
A couple different battle modes, plus the Connected co-op/boss attack mode, which is an EXTREMELY cool idea. I do wish there was a bit more to it (only 5 stages), but what is there is very cool. Essentially three players working together to fight a boss, charging their zone meter to "conjoin" their boards into one for a massive attack directed specifically at the boss' board.
Anyway yeah, I've yapped on a lot, but this is absolutely worth it, especially if you're a Tetris fan already. It's easily one of if not the best in the entire series. And it goes on sale extremely often, on top of already being cheap baseline.
You ABSOLUTELY should do yourself a favor and play it at some point.

most atmospheric beautiful game of tetris ever created. worth the money if youre insane about tetris like me. we're all connected. i suggest watching the commercial and also jacob geller's video essay on tetris effect and other games with immaculate vibes.

As someone with "fast" Tetris background (Jstris, Tetr.io), this game is a refreshing edition to the block stacking genre.
For the technical part, gone away are the 0 ARR and instant softdrop, welcome back to good old DAS management and skill stopping. The control may feel a bit clunky at first, but once you get used to it, placing 2 pieces per second should be doable. It takes a while to get used to higher levels and 20G as well. It certainly helps if you have experience with other guideline Tetris games like Puyo Puyo Tetris, Tetris.com and Tetris 99.
Regarding the content, I enjoy all three modes in the game. The journey mode is blessed with mesmerizing visuals and captivating music. Each stage is uncertainly a brand new adventure with different paces and challenges. The effect mode is filled with interesting and creative game modes. Along side the traditional Sprint and Ultra mode, I particularly find the Purify mode really enjoyable. The downstacking is more varied compared to Jstris' Cheese race, and the "purification" effects are beautiful. Lastly, the multiplayer modes are decent. I play Zone Battle the most and matchmaking is quick enough at low SR. The only bad apples are the players quitting before losing so that they don't lose rating points. This should be an easy fix with some kind of rating penalty for such players.
Overall, a 9/10 game and I definitely recommend it.